Oakland still ranks among the nation's wealthiest counties

A recent Forbes magazine story listing the 25 wealthiest counties didn't include Oakland County, but according to county researchers, Oakland County still ranks among the wealthiest counties.

Oakland County promotes itself as the 10th wealthiest county among U.S. counties with a population of one million or more people.

"We aren't going to be in (the current Forbes list)," said Katherine Graham, market research analyst with Oakland County Economic Development.

"When we rank ourselves, we use per capita income, which is total income divided by population."

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The March 4 story by Francesca Levy listed counties by median household income. Data for the list came from the U.S. Census Bureau, which conducts the annual American Community Survey, a smaller-scale version of the decennial census. The most recent data are from 2008 and included 1,889 counties, according to the article.

Graham said Oakland County's latest figures show the county has a median income of $67,518.

Statisticians at Detroit-based SEMCOG -- Southeast Michigan Council of Governments -- agreed that the per capita figure was the criteria they preferred in calculations.

"The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis surveys businesses and measures sales, incomes and tax files," said Graham.

"It's a more accurate measure of money flow."

Forbes pointed out that 19 of the 25 richest counties in the country are on the East Coast.

The top county -- Loudoun County, Va .-- lies northwest of Washington, D.C., and benefits from its proximity to the capital. Several of the country's wealthiest households are "tightly concentrated" in counties around D.C., according to Forbes.

Graham noted that the Forbes list only included 1,889 counties out of the nation's 3,111.

Oakland County prefers to rank itself with other like counties, said Graham.

"There are pockets of wealth such as Teton County in Wyoming," and Oakland County isn't anything like that, Graham said.

"We prefer to be ranked with other vibrant metro areas," Graham said.

Oakland County has fallen from its former fourth spot among counties with populations of a million or more, Graham said.

"We've been losing ground," she acknowledged.

"You can't lose more than 45,000 jobs between 2005 and 2007 and not have household and per capita income go down."

Oakland County's latest figures show the county has a median household income of $67,518 and a population of 1.2 million.